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Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever
Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever is the twelfth episode of the third season of Monk. Plot When Natalie stops outside a dance studio and goes inside to pick up Julie, Adrian Monk waits outside. He looks down an alleyway and sees an Asian man shooting another in cold blood. The killer looks up and sees Monk, but runs away when he hears police sirens. As the sole witness to a gang murder, Monk is immediately placed in protective custody by the F.B.I., and taken to a remote cabin in the woods to hide until it is time for him to testify. Natalie and Stottlemeyer accompany him, along with Agent Grooms. Monk can’t go anywhere without Natalie, and Stottlemeyer doesn’t trust Grooms to protect his friend. While stopping at a bait store for a case of Sierra Springs water, Monk notices an avid fisherman, Martin Willowby, arguing with his wife, Kathy. The one-room cabin in the woods is enough to make Monk freeze up in horror, but Natalie and Stottlemeyer help him ease in. Back in San Francisco, Disher is enjoying dinner with his new girlfriend, Hayley. They open their fortune cookies, and Randy’s says a friend will save him from a “dirty death.” Outside the restaurant, Hayley narrowly saves him from being run over by a garbage truck. Late at night, Monk can’t sleep. Stottlemeyer occupies the top bunk of their bed, and his foot keeps flopping down. A short distance away is the cabin occupied by the Willowbys. Martin is taking a bath, and Kathy creeps up and throws a radio into the tub, electrocuting him to death. Monk hears the scream from the cabin, and sees the lights flickering. The next morning, he insists that Kathy has killed her husband. She has been buying ice all day and carrying it inside, and no one has seen Martin come out. Stottlemeyer dials the cabin, pretending to be an old friend looking for Martin. Kathy says he is fishing, when they can all see his boat is in dock. Stottlemeyer believes Monk, but Agent Grooms forbids them to leave the house or make any more calls, going so far as to disconnect the telephone. Randy enjoys another meal with Hayley, and they break open another set of fortune cookies. This time, Randy’s says he will receive a gift from a rich uncle. Randy says this is impossible, since all of his uncles are deceased; then a messenger arrives with a tax refund – “Good Old Uncle Sam.” On the next night, dark and stormy, Monk sees Kathy pushing her husband’s boat out onto the lake. He insists that they have to go to the lake and grab the evidence before it is destroyed. Stottlemeyer locks Grooms in the bathroom, and he, Monk, and Natalie get into Natalie’s Jeep. However, their Jeep gets stuck on a muddy road, and they are forced to spend the night inside it. To cap off their dismal evening, Stottlemeyer finds a surprise birthday cake that Natalie brought for him, which is now mush. The next day, they hike through the woods, trying to find their way back to the cabin. After several hours, they find a stream to drink from, but Monk won’t, until Stottlemeyer and Natalie convince him that Sierra Springs is actually bottled there, and the stream is the same as the water Monk drinks. They still have to lower him by his belt, so that no part of him except his lips touches the ground or the water. In San Francisco, Randy and Hayley open a third set of fortune cookies. Randy’s says that a friend is in danger and only Randy can save him. Randy calls the cabin, and hears the phone has been disconnected. He rushes to his car and drives toward the woods, at which Hayley coolly nods to a pair of Chinese assassins, who follow Randy. Monk, Stottlemeyer, and Natalie make it to the Willowbys cabin as the local sheriff is questioning Kathy, who says Martin was killed in a freak accident – hit by lightning while out on the lake during the storm. Then Randy arrives, having seen them from the other cabin. As he explains what brought him there, Monk looks at the fortunes and tells Randy they’ve been cut with scissors. Stottlemeyer realizes they have been set up, and pulls Monk to the ground just as the assassins start firing rifles through the windows. While everyone is down on the floor, Monk notices a scorch mark from the radio’s power cord leading from the outlet to the bathtub. At the same time, Randy examines the fortunes, and he and Monk give their summations simultaneously: Here’s What Happened Monk: Kathy killed her husband in the bathtub, then kept his body on ice for a day so as to confuse the coroner about the time of death. Her intent was to make the death look like an act of God, so as to collect an extra premium from his life insurance policy. Randy: Randy realizes that Hayley contrived their meeting and relationship, and arranged the series of “coincidences” to get him to believe in the fortunes, before slipping him one that would send him to the cabin, since he was the only one besides Stottlemeyer who knew where it was. Grooms, who has managed to escape the bathroom, surprises one of the assassins and shoots him dead. The other one turns on Grooms, but Stottlemeyer emerges from the house and shoots the second one dead. The sheriff arrests Kathy, saying he will order a full autopsy on Martin’s body. As they prepare to leave, Natalie reconsiders what she thought earlier. She was grumbling that Monk seems to have “bad karma,” in that people always get murdered around him. Now, she realizes, these murders just happen, and Monk is there to put it right. Trivia * It is a joke throughout the episode at how incompetent the F.B.I. is in protecting its witnesses; Grooms enters the woods wearing a three-piece suit; Natalie mentions reading that the last witness to stay in the cabin was killed; and when all the locals hear that they are staying in the cabin on the lake, they all say, “Oh, the F.B.I. cabin.” * Posters from various martial arts movies can be seen on the walls of Randy’s apartment, as mentioned in "Mr. Monk vs. The Cobra." Quotes Monk: Did you make a wish? Stottlemeyer: Yes, I did. Monk: ...Did it involve me? Stottlemeyer: Yes, it did. Adrian Monk: Nature! I've got nature on my hand! Get it off! Deputy Coby: Who are those guys? Stottlemeyer: Hit men from San Francisco! Natalie: They’re here to kill Monk! Kathy Willowby: Good! Monk/Disher: (together) Oh, my God! I’ve got it! Here’s what happened... Deputy Coby: My head's spinning. Which of those guys are you listening to? Stottlemeyer: Neither one. Disher: Now I have to go back and arrest my girlfriend for conspiracy and attempted murder. She’ll probably break up with me! 3.11